In the Night Garden

Lovely, compelling. I went into it with a certain amount of trepidation about modern fairy tales; I didn't think there was much space available between being too much an Arabian Nights homage and being too clever entirely, but In The Night Garden finds that space and thrives there. It felt a bit more mature than [b:Palimpsest 3973532 Palimpsest Catherynne M. Valente https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320532857s/3973532.jpg 4019291], maybe just less dream-like. The interweaving tales, themes, and characters have just the right amount of complexity (I flipped back to read previous passages a bit, but didn't feel overwhelmed by the nested stories), gradually building up a picture of the world in which they take place. This is one of those books that I found myself thinking about constantly.